


"Stay With Me"

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Series: Whumptober 2019 [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Coping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Minor Character Death, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Step-parents, Wakes & Funerals, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 17:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21060710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: When Peter's grief gets to be too much, Rhodey takes care of his step-son.***Whumptober 2019 Day 17: "Stay With Me"





	"Stay With Me"

Rhodey sighed in the doorway, watching Peter numbly rub his fingers against his favorite blanket, which was just one of the many the boy had wrapped around himself, covering the top of his stolen MIT hoodie. The room was dim, and the light from the hallway caught the dried tears on the teen’s face. His eyes still shone, but he looked more distant than upset at this point. 

“Your dad’s worried about you,” Rhodey announced, not entering the room. He leaned heavily on his cane, his legs aching today. He wanted to blame the cold weather, but it probably had more to do with his two missed PT sessions. Peter wasn’t the only one with bad days. 

The boy didn’t respond, just continued to run his fingers over the coarse knitted blanket. One Rhodey knew the kid’s aunt had found at a flea market for when their power had been going out frequently three or four winters ago. May had been too proud to let Tony help, and Peter never complained. 

“Mind if I sit?”

Peter shrugged, which was half a win in Rhodey’s book. His husband was the Peter Whisperer for sure, but getting any sort of response on days like this took a special kind of trust. One that had only recently began blooming between the pair. 

Of course, Rhodey had known about Peter from the start. He went to half of the prenatal doctor’s appointments and helped write the non-disclosure agreements. When she married Richard three months pregnant, Rhodey had helped Tony pick out a gift set of pots and pans that nobody would think twice about. Mary and Tony both agreed at the time that it had been a fluke. Tony would pay child support, and visit the kid a couple times a year, and Mary would keep their secret. Rhodey had sat in the waiting room when Mary went into labor, watching Tony pace up and down the hallway. 

The plane crash had been rough. Peter had actually stayed with Tony for a week, while Rhodey had been overseas. Thankfully, May Parker had already known about Tony, having signed some of the original NDAs as Peter’s godmother. She had picked up a mourning, confused Peter only a month before Tony was kidnapped in Afghanistan. 

Thankfully, Tony’s ingenuity had saved his son from another heartbreak. 

However, the universe’s hiatus on collecting Peter’s loved ones had ended on a cool February night nearly two years previous. May’s husband had been killed trying to stop a gas station robbery. He had been off duty, picking up a celebratory slushy for Peter, who had just been admitted to Midtown High. And just after the one year anniversary of his death, after Peter’s spring midterms, May called Tony with devastating news and within three months of her diagnosis, May had succumbed to the cancer. She was only fifty. 

Peter hadn’t taken it well. Of course, no one had expected him to. Two sets of parents gone, and now he was on his third. On good days, Peter would joke that maybe Rhodey and Tony would have a better shot of surviving raising Peter because they were both men. 

But on days like today, when his grief gripped his throat and fear shook his fingers, Rhodey knew that Peter believed they didn’t have a shot. Even if Tony had a twenty four seven security detail—upon Rhodey’s insistence after the three month kidnapping. Even if Rhodey was an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel—retired, after his crash, but still more than capable of holding his own. To Peter, it didn’t matter. Being his guardian was a death sentence. 

But Rhodey wouldn’t do anything to prove that thinking wrong as he settled on the edge of the bed, leaving a foot of space between himself and the boy. 

“What’s going on in there, bud?” he probed softly. 

Peter shrugged again, this time glancing up at his step-dad. “‘m okay,” he mumbled, pulling the blankets tighter around himself. His eyelids fluttered. Rhodey resisted the urge to place a steadying hand on his back. The poor boy looked about ready to keel over. Clearly, he’d been lying about the amount of sleep he’d been getting. 

“Sorry if I don’t believe you, Pete.” 

Peter hummed in response. 

“Can I give you a hug?” 

Peter shook his head, tightening his grip on his blankets. 

“That’s alright.” And it was. Because, sure, Peter and Rhodey had always known about each other—the Stark-Rhodes wedding had been national news—but they hadn’t met until that summer, just hours before May’s funeral. 

Rhodey had walked into the back of the church to be greeted by the sight of a sobbing boy, too small to be fifteen, clinging to Tony’s chest. The father rubbed his back, sending a sympathetic look towards Rhodey, who had volunteered to sit with Peter during the ceremony, since the head of R&D of Stark Industries would be a bit obvious. It looked like Peter wasn’t taking the seating arrangement all too well. He held Tony like the engineer would disappear if he let go. 

Eventually, the boy calmed down enough to allow himself to be led to the front pew of the church, where he stared straight ahead while some cousin or uncle gave the eulogy. Peter wrapped his arms around his knees, not moving the entire time. He didn’t say a word when Rhodey told him it was time to leave, just stood up and followed, emotionless. 

In the months following, Peter had warmed up to Rhodey considerably. He would call him James when he wanted to be funny and Mr. Rhodes when he wanted help convincing his dad of something ridiculous. But that didn’t mean the kid was emotionally open with him in the slightest. That was all Tony. Tony, who was in Japan at the moment, and who wouldn't be back for another week. 

Although Rhodey didn’t regret waiting to meet Peter—another father figure really wouldn’t have helped kept the kid’s head straight as he fumbled through childhood—he did wish he’d spent more time with his baby cousins when he was growing up. 

“How can I help?” Rhodey asked, hoping the direct approach would be appropriate. 

Peter looked up, considering his step-father for a long moment. Finally, his need got the better of him and he whispered, “Stay with me?” 

Just like that, Rhodey’s heart melted. He moved closer to Peter, not touching, and promised, “Of course buddy.”

Peter unlatched his arms from around himself and clung to the veteran. 

Maybe Rhodey wasn’t a father yet, but he was getting there. He would stay as long as he needed to. 


End file.
